THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Bee-Keepers' Review. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. Editor and ProDiielor. 



Terms :— $1.00 a year in advance. Two copies 

 $1.90 ; three for $2.70 ; five for $4.00 ; ten or more. 

 75 cents each. If it is desired to liave the Reviiw 

 stopped at the expiration of the time paid for, 

 please say so when subscribing, otherwise, it 

 will be continued. 



a few pages were~printed in green, a few 

 in red, a few in brown, and then a few- in 

 black, etc. This making of an effort to 

 be enterprising is commendable, but I 

 hope Bro. Atchley will pardon me for say- 

 ing that, in my opinion, the reading pages 

 of a magazine can never be neater than 

 when printed with black ink on white 

 paper. 



FLINT. MICHIGAN, JAN. 10. 1891. 



" A CORN.STAI.K Fiddle," writes Mr. 

 W. H. Pridgen, "will beat Bro. Hasty's 

 nickel clock in imitating the piping of a 

 queen. If he did not make them for 

 amusement when a boy, and does not 

 know how it is done, I will send him one 

 for the asking. Who knows but this 

 might open a road to the ' tiny machine ' 

 wanted on page 296 of Nov. Review? " 



Len(;th of Tongue in bees is some- 

 thing that has been discussed somewhat 

 in the journals, btit I have just read of the 

 first successful attempt in that line. Mr. 

 J. M. Rankin, who now has charge of the 

 Michigan Experiment Apiary, writes to 

 the American Bee-Keeper that, by actual 

 measurement, he has increased the length 

 of tongue of one strain of bees two-tenths 

 millimeter the past sea.son. This was 

 done by crossing. 



Shippin(5-cases are rather expensive 

 " out West," jtidging from the way Mr. 

 F. L,. Thompson writes. Here is what 

 he says : 



" Thin, 24-lb., single tier, cases cost ij^^ 

 cts., and weigh 5 lbs. each. Best honej- 

 is, only $1.75 per case in Denver, and 

 freight one cent a pound. Just gaze on 

 those figures, and see if you don't think 

 there is some reason for getting restive ? 

 Couldn't you start some suggestion for 

 getting rid of cases altogether ? 



The vSotTTHL.\ND OUEEN is now, I be- 

 lieve, printed by the Atchleys without the 

 assistance of a professional printer, and 

 they got out a holiday number that was 

 almost as bright as a rainbow. That is, 



^»»^<«^«**»^ 



The American Bee Journai, comes 

 out with a new front heading,'|also new 

 Department headings, and it must be 

 prospering, for its editor wrote me not 

 long ago that he never before had so busy 

 a December as the last one. I can say 

 the same. Never before did I see so 

 urgently the need of there being "two of 

 me." I had hoped to "catch up" a little 

 on the Re\-iew this month, but it was 

 simply impossible. Some days I was 

 bt^sy from daylight until dark simply 

 attending to the mail that came in. 



^^rf«*n«-*»Hjr^ 



.SWARMINC.-TROUBI.ES. 



The trials of swarming-time have not 

 commenced yet for this year, but Mr. J. 

 T. Hari-ston of Salina, Indian Territory, 

 so graphically describes his of last year 

 that I can not forbear telling what he 

 wrote. I beg his parbon for ' telling, " if 

 any is needed. He says: 



" As I was anxious to have the bees 

 swann I began feeding early in the spring 

 for stimulation. The first swarm came 

 the 19th of April, and the swarms con- 

 tinued to swarm, two or three a day, un- 

 til all had swarmed. I had clipped the 

 queens, so had no trouble in hiving the 

 swarms, and I was happy. About this 

 time second swarms began to come forth. 

 Then they swarmed some more. I began 

 to get enough of it. I had used up one 

 order of twenty-flve hives, and hurried off 

 another order for thirty more. Still they 

 swarmed. As long as the old clipped 

 queens were leading out swarms, every- 

 thing was lovely, but when swarms with 

 virgin queens began settling in the tops 

 of those rough black-jacks and hickories 

 it wasn't so lovely. I began to hunt up 

 all of the article's on swarming that I 

 could find. I had to do this at night, as 

 the bees kept me in the trees all day. If 

 ever a poor mortal was in trouble it was 

 myself, I, tried every plan that I could 



